The public speaking bar is set too low.  I used to think it was only in the business world.  But now it’s clear that the bar is set low in the political world as well.  I’d just forgotten how low it is.  There are both long-term and short-term reasons for this.  Watching the primary season speech coverage lately has made me aware of the problem all over again. 

The long-term reason has to do with message.  The Republicans have been ‘on message’ since forever; it’s how they took over the political world in the last 25 years to begin with.  Lately, the Democrats, tired of losing, have gone on message too.  What does this mean in practice?

It means that everyone sings from the same song sheet, repeating the same messages over and over.  On the Republican side, they even use the same words.  The same 7 words, they boast. 

That has enormous virtue in a media-and-information-saturated age.  Nobody pays attention for long, so hit low and hard with simple stuff, and maybe it’ll stick. 

The downside is that this doesn’t respect the audience.  Speeches, communications, sound bites — none of this barrage of information from both sides respects the audience’s need to be engaged. 

A good speech is as much about the audience as it is the speaker, and the 2 parties have forgotten this in their need to stay on message.

The short-term reason is exahaustion and the need to reach so many people in such a huge country in such a short time.  The candidates are getting 30 minutes sleep some nights.  All they can do is repeat the stump speech over and over.  On message. 

For a clue as to why Senator Obama is so charging up his crowds, take a look at one of his speeches on the hustings.  His opening is all about the audience.  To be sure, he does get around to giving his message on change, but it’s always couched in terms of the audience.  Most of the other candidates — on both sides — talk about themselves incessantly.  Here’s what I would do, here’s what I have done, and so on.  And Obama could be even better with more focus on the audience!  The bar is set so low by Bush, Kerry, Gore, and all the others, that he shines in comparison.   

It’s time to raise the bar.  When you’re giving a speech, make it about the audience.  That takes a lot of work — you have to think about them and their problems more than yourself — but the payoff is potentially huge.  Think Obama.